Sex Worker Co-Op

Here is something awesome: sex workers in Vancouver are planning to open a cooperatively-owned brothel. Being planned by British Columbia Coalition of Experiential Women, the idea is to create a safe place to work and enable sex workers to have control over their work.

Thousands of women have been killed in Vancouver, many of them sex workers, and a worker-owned co-op, where women could work inside, is a step toward preventing this kind of violence.

According to Women’s E-News, any sex worker can join the co-op and rent rooms. Workers set their own rates and keep all of their profits, and the co-op will adhere to labour standards. Plans include an art gallery, a museum on the history of sex work and a dinner club featuring burlesque shows.

Even the police and politicians are backing the idea, as the city tries to “clean up” its image (read: hide from view its many and persistent economic and social problems) for the 2010 Olympics. In fact, the only people opposed are escort agencies that are afraid of a little competition.